Landmarks Van Dorn Family friendly?

[Anonymous]

How is this area for a young couple starting a family? We plan to be in a single family home by the time our children enter school but are looking for a townhome for the time being. We have driven around the area and like what we have seen so far. Can anyone give some more info on the area that I might be missing (positive and negative)?

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about Alexandria near Landmark Mall? We lived in a nice townhouse over there when kids were small. Convenient to 395 and Old Town. Not very walkable though so we moved when kids were a little older. Cameron. StAtion is your best bet if it fits your budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is this area for a young couple starting a family? We plan to be in a single family home by the time our children enter school but are looking for a townhome for the time being. We have driven around the area and like what we have seen so far. Can anyone give some more info on the area that I might be missing (positive and negative)?

More crime and congestion in that area. Poor schools. Not very walkable at all. But if you look at the crime reports in Alexandria, a lot of it is oriented in that area.

[Anonymous]

My ex lives in Cameron Station, and it's a great place for young kids. He hasn't had any issues with crime, and we enjoy the pool and other amenities. Townhouses are very expensive, though - you might want to look at the 2-level townhouse-style condos in the $400's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about Alexandria near Landmark Mall? We lived in a nice townhouse over there when kids were small. Convenient to 395 and Old Town. Not very walkable though so we moved when kids were a little older. Cameron. StAtion is your best bet if it fits your budget.

OP here- The area that I am interested in is just east of South Van Dorn Street and just south of Duke Street. So basically just south east of the mall. Also looking in to the Seminary Hill area north of Duke Street, Cameron Station, and Lincolnia. We do want to be convenient to Old Town, however we don't want to go farther south due to commute times. I have found some townhomes in those areas that seem perfect for us right now, but the mentioning of crime concerns me. Can anyone who lives or has lived here give some feedback on that topic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about Alexandria near Landmark Mall? We lived in a nice townhouse over there when kids were small. Convenient to 395 and Old Town. Not very walkable though so we moved when kids were a little older. Cameron. StAtion is your best bet if it fits your budget.

OP here- The area that I am interested in is just east of South Van Dorn Street and just south of Duke Street. So basically just south east of the mall. Also looking in to the Seminary Hill area north of Duke Street, Cameron Station, and Lincolnia. We do want to be convenient to Old Town, however we don't want to go farther south due to commute times. I have found some townhomes in those areas that seem perfect for us right now, but the mentioning of crime concerns me. Can anyone who lives or has lived here give some feedback on that topic?

Long time resident of this part of Alexandria here. There are pockets so you just have to be careful which pocket you end up in.

We currently have a 24 mo old and have another one on the way (due next month). To get to the public park closest to my townhouse I have to walk through several communities that are very different from my own. Where we live has condo townhomes and most of the owners are white and there are a fair amount of small children. The low income apartments next door have much more diversity with a lot of immigrants from Africa, Ethiopia, Pakistan, India, Etc. Sometimes I've seen sketchy people loitering in the apartment common areas ie parking lots courtyards but they don't bother me. Maybe because I'm a pregnant mom walking with my toddler in a stroller? I've also noticed that the guys in general are very courteous. Espcially if I'm walking when it's near dark the men on the sidewalk will go out of their way to make eye contact and say hi to make me comfortable or they will avoid me alltogether look away and give me lots of room to pass.

In general this area has a high amount of immigrants and the schools are not too great. We will probably end up moving by the time our DC's are school age but for now its perfect. 18-45 minute commute into DC depending on the traffic.

To get back to your original question we've never had a problem with crime other than last year when a series of cars in our parking lot were broken into but that was mostly due to people leaving their car doors open and leaving stuff out in plain view to entice the theives. I always lock my doors and leave nothing out and have never had a problem.

I like the area and if it werent for the bad schools we'd probably stay here longer.

[Anonymous]

The schools are bad. If you are moving there as a pit stop on the road to moving to elsewhere in the future, rent and don't buy.

At the end of 2014, they will start some redevelopment in the area near Mark Center. This will slightly change the demographic. They will continue to develop over the next 6 years to 10 years and continue demographic changes. Right now there are a lot of families in apartments with 2 and 3 bedrooms close by the area. Those apartments will be replaced with luxury studio, 1Br and a sprinkling of 2 BRs.

[Anonymous]

also wanted to add they plan to redevelop Landmark Mall starting in 2014/2015 timeframe

[Anonymous]

Horrible schools. As long as you plan to move by the time they are in school it's fine.

[Anonymous]

How are the SFR in this area? Seems like a great little neighborhood and we are encouraged by the planned updates. Crime rates do not look bad. Give me the bad and good, please!

[Anonymous]

If you have kids you will have to figure in the cost of private schools. As pp have mentioned the schools are horrible. We lived there and liked it until the kids were school aged then bought in FAirfax. We would rather put the money into a home then spend 50k a yr on private school for kids.

[Anonymous]

So if kids go private, it is a good area ? Families, low crime ( at least if person)? From what I can see it is good.

[Anonymous]

We are in the Seminary Valley neighborhood, SFH. The worst crime in our immediate neighborhood are people who like to run the stop sign. We checked our several years of police reports in the area, and the worst thing was cars being broken into, which isn't surprising since there's a lot of street parking. We are accessible to the Holmes Run Trail, which allows you to walk to Harris Teeter, Chipotle, and Ben Brenman Park. We like it a lot. People who don't live in our neighborhood say the schools are "horrible," but anecdotally, our neighbors who have children there (and there are quite a few) are happy. Yes, there are a lot of immigrant families in the area. Yes, many of their children are FARMS, and some are ESL. That alone isn't enough to make me unhappy about a school...quite the contraty. We feed into Polk ES, although families closer to Foxchase I think feed into Patrick Henry. I don't know anyone who sends their kids there, since we have a toddler.

If you're renting and don't mind moving later on, it really shouldn't matter that much how the schools are. Landmark area is (supposedly, fingers crossed) being redeveloped, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. I am not familiar with the S. Van Dorn area except for the strip mall north of Edsall! But I like where we live a lot.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP! We are looking at Lincolnia Hills.